A sociable actor with a personality that brightens up the movie screen, Cuba Gooding,
Jr. experienced the good and bad of show business growing up as the son of
his famed singer father. When his parents separated, he relocated with his mother, brother
and sister out of the Hollywood lifestyle and began having economic difficulty, which
included periods of being homeless and living out of cars, as well as time on welfare.

While the family was
sleeping in a cheap hotel in
Orange County, he made friends with personal assistant Shawn Suttles
and development partner Derek Broes, and the three polished their break dancing
moves, calling themselves the Majestic Vision Break dancers.
Their showing was good enough to get them into the break dancing variety
show that was part of the closing ceremonies at the 1984 Olympic
Games, and the performance landed Cuba a talent agent, shining some light on the
world he had known as a child.

The actor got his first real part as a thug in an episode of "Hill Street Blues", then
as a guest star on "Jake and the Fatman". Other television roles and
commercials followed before he made his movie introduction in "Coming to America"
(1988) starring Eddie
Murphy. His leap forward came with
a leading role in "Boyz
N the Hood" (1991) featuring Angela
Basset, abut the saga of a group of childhood friends growing up in a
Los Angeles ghetto. The newcomer was moving up in the world, an audience favorite, and the job offers started to
pour in.

He next took the role that forever changed his status in Hollywood
and put him on the list of sexy celebrities. The actor was cast in the
star-studded blockbuster
court-martial drama "A Few Good Men" (1992) working with veteran
actors, in a
story set in the heart of the nation's capital, in a courthouse of the
United Sates government, where one man will stop at nothing to keep his honor, and one
will stop at nothing to find the truth. He then starred in "Gladiator"
(1992), a story about two teenagers trapped in the world of illegal
underground boxing.

Next, He was hired and cast in the Western comedy alongside Paul Hogan in "Lightning Jack"
(1994, a comedy about two outlaws who just wanted to be wanted. Next, he
attracted attention in his role as Mike in "Judgment Night" (1993)
with Emilio Estevez as part of the young group forced to fight for their lives after witnessing a crime in
Chicago's inner-city. He kept his career going with other small roles in
"Losing Isaiah" with Halle
Berry and Samuel L.
Jackson, and "Outbreak" (1995) with another all-star cast including
Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo, where extreme measures are necessary to contain an epidemic of
a deadly airborne virus.

When Damon Wayans dropped out of "Jerry Maguire" (1996), Gooding stepped into
the role, and was stunning alongside Tom Cruise and Renee
Zellweger, a story about a sports agent who has a moral epiphany and is
fired for expressing it and decides to put his new philosophy to the test as
an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him. His performance
in "Jerry Maguire" won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and
shouts of "Show me the
money!" his motto to the lead agent, became part of the countries vocabulary.

His
next outing were supporting roles as Greg Kinnear's gay art dealer
friend in "As Good As
It Gets" (1997) and as Robin Williams' tour guide in "What Dreams
May Come" (1998). In his first
leading role since his Oscar win, he left the roles of friendly,
colorful characters for a much more academic role as a striving psychiatrist trying to draw out Anthony Hopkins' psychotic killer
in the dramatic thriller "Instinct" (1999).

That year he also played a small town good guy trying to stop a chemical
weapon from exploding in "Chill Factor", then was
cast opposite Robert De Niro in "Men of Honor" (2000),
the story of Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy Diver and the man who trained him. Staying in
uniform, the actor then played a courageous Naval petty officer who courageously
defends
his station on the Arizona from the Japanese attack on "Pearl
Harbor" (2001) with Ben
Affleck and Kate
Beckinsale. He then worked for Disney in the comedy "Snow Dogs" (2002), playing a Miami dentist who
inherits a sled dog team and finds himself racing across the frozen Alaskan
tundra.

He followed with one of his few bad flicks in, "Boat Trip" (2002),
accidentally embarking on a gay singles cruise with his not-so-bright friend
(Horatio Sanz). His
next movie, "The Fighting Temptations" (2003) was admired at the box office for its
captivating gospel and soul music, Cuba - playing a
morally damaged advertising executive who returns to his home to collect an
inheritance finds himself working instead to build a ruthless church choir
from a gang of misfits.

His next role showed that he still had power. He took on the
starring role in the drama "Radio"
(2003), playing the mentally challenged southern local boy who finds comradeship
and hope in the town's football coach (Ed Harris). The relationship
eventually results in both men being moved in two entirely different ways.
He then lent his voice talents to the karate kicking stallion 'Buck' in the animated
movie “Home on the Range” (2004), where in order to save their farm, the
resident animals go bounty hunting for a notorious outlaw. He starred opposite Helen
Mirren as a romantically involved couple of hired killers looking for one last
chance at deliverance in “Shadowboxer” (2005).

In a low budget role,
the rising celebrity played a crooked cop pulled into an
Internal Affairs investigation in the thriller “Dirty” (2005), then
portrayed a Secret Service agent teamed up with a hot shot reporter (Angie
Harmon) to find the crooks involved in the assassination of the
President of the United States in “End Game” (2006). Returning to comedy
roles, he played a supporting role to the many characters of Eddie
Murphy in “Norbit” (2007), about a mild-mannered guy who is engaged
to a monstrous woman then meets the woman of his dreams, and schemes to find
a way to be with her. More comedy followed with "What Love Is"
(2007) about a man who plans to surprise his girlfriend with an engagement
ring, and asks his four best friends to witness the popping of the question
at his place on Valentine's night, and then runs into a big problem.

He then kicked it up a notch with Russell Crowe and Denzel
Washington in the crime thriller "American Gangster" (2007),
set in the 1970's America, about a detective who works to bring down the
drug empire of Frank Lucas, a heroin kingpin from Manhattan, who is
smuggling the drug into the country from the Far East. He stayed with
the action thrillers with his role in "Hero Wanted" (2008) where
after a man awakens in a hospital he tracks down and murders the men that
left him and a bank teller for dead during a robbery, only to end up having
the slain thief's associates come after him in retaliation.

During the 2008-2009 movie season The actor had a number of projects released
including the comedy "Harold" (2008) about a teenager with an
early onset of male-pattern baldness who befriends his high school's
janitor. Then he returned to dramatic films with "Linewatch"
(2008) about a seasoned agent working line watch on the United Stated Mexico Border.
He then starred with J.K. Simmons in the action thriller "The Way
Of War" (2008) where a paramilitary operative goes on a rampage after
discovering a conspiracy to commit war. He wrapped his year with with Christian
Slater in the action thriller "Lies & Illusions"
(2008) where a book editor from New York becomes obsessed with the author of
a violent novel.